Nowitzki Takes Care of Business

Star Telegram

DALLAS - Once, finishing his career with the Mavericks seemed almost certain. Now, the doubt is understandably there.

How could it not be with the departures of Steve Nash and Michael Finley in consecutive summers?

Dirk Nowitzki, the last remnant of the "Big Three" still wearing "Dallas" across his chest, has come to the cold realization that he could suit up in another jersey one day.

"I learned pretty quick in this league that it's a business," Nowitzki said, less than a week into training camp. "If you don't perform the way they want you to, or sometimes you do perform, but don't fit in with the future of the team, I understand what happens. You might be out of that situation sooner or later.

"We all make enough money that we have to live with that risk. There are players that have been moved five or six times in three years. I'm lucky that I've been in one situation now for seven years now and I hope it will be a lot more, but you also have to always be prepared for the worst."

Finances played a leading role in the exits of both Nash and Finley. Nash's situation hit Nowitzki especially hard, considering Nash was at the top of his game when he left, and went on to an MVP season in Phoenix.

While predicting an eventual exit for Nowitzki seems unrealistic considering his All-Star status, the same could have been said about Nash and Finley a little more than a year ago.

"Who would have thought that?" president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson admitted. "But those other two circumstances are different.

"Every organization wants to have those special names up in the rafters and build that kind of tradition, but it's hard to predict the future."

Looking back, Nowitzki thought the trio would ride off into the sunset together.

"I thought so, especially after we came so close in the Western Conference finals," Nowitzki said referring to the 2003 series with San Antonio. "I thought we were going to try a couple more years, but we decided a different route and here we are now."

Where that route takes the Mavs under coach Avery Johnson remains to be seen. Without a clue as to what Nowitzki might do, one of his former running mates recognized the possibility of Nowitzki playing somewhere else.

"I have no idea what Dirk's long-term plans are," Nash said from Suns camp. "I think it would've made it a lot easier for him to finish there if we were all there."

Nowitzki, 27, has three years left on his contract for $45 million, a deal he extended in 2001 before testing free agency. He alluded to hitting the open market when the current contract expires.

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